IIT-B students complain of ‘painful’ registration process

Students are upset with the institute’s online registration process. In a recent article posted on Insight, IIT-B’s in-house portal, the students complained that the registration process is marred with delay, slow website and incorrect entries on the registration portal...

The students at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) are upset with the institute’s online registration process. In a recent article posted on Insight, IIT-B’s in-house portal, the students complained that the registration process is marred with delay, slow website and incorrect entries on the registration portal.

At the start of every semester, IITians are required to apply for their course plan on the online portal.

The article reads that the registration starts after the delay of “a few hours minimum to a whole day at times”. It also complained that the registration is further prolonged due to a slow registration portal.

As per the article, due to continuously changing timetables, the students are forced to rethink their course plan. “Incorrect, double, or missing timetable entries that throw up exceptions a student cannot deal with, leading to confusion and a lot of back and forth between said student and the Academic Section,” it read.

The article suggests that problems are the result of “bureaucratic lack of coordination” between different stakeholders. “The [IIT-B] academic section, Application Software Centre - which handles the website - and the departments work throughout the year, and when registration impinges on their schedule for a few days in the year, it just isn’t on the top of their to-do-list,” it adds.

Shreerang Javdekar, one of the student editors at Insight, said that they have made representations to the authorities and apprised them of the problem.

The students are hopeful that a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, aimed at streamlining all processes, will make the registration smoother. “The other light is that the Academic Council is available to help liaise with students and the other stakeholders before, during, and after the registration process,” reads the article.

Soumyo Mukherjee, dean, student affairs at IIT-B refused to comment on the issue. “I have not read the article,” he said.